Big Finish Productions Zaltys

Written by	Matthew J. Elliot
Format	Compact Disc
Released	2017

Starring Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding

Synopsis: In the Vortex, the TARDIS comes under a form of psychic attack --- resulting in the abductions of first Adric, then Tegan. Following their trail, the Doctor and Nyssa arrive under the lurid skies of the planet Zaltys, whose entire population has vanished in strange circumstances. Soon, they discover that Zaltys is now the target of treasure seekers, come to scavenge this so-called Planet of the Dead... Meanwhile, deep below the planet's surface, Adric learns the earth-shattering reason why the people of Zaltys disappeared... and why they were wise to do so. And Tegan is, quite literally, in the dark --- enduring interrogation by the mysterious Clarimonde. Any friend of the Doctor's is Clarimonde's enemy... because theirs is a blood feud!

• Monster Mash on the Planet of the Dead by Thomas Tiley

Monster Mash on the Planet of the Dead by Thomas Tiley 26/8/25

While the Doctor and Nyssa make repairs to the TARDIS, Tegan convinces a sullen Adric to try to pilot the TARDIS back to Heathrow, messing up. Adric and Tegan vanish from the control room, forcing the Doctor to track them down to Zaltys, planet of the dead.

First of all it has a nice cover, it gives of a Blake Seven sort of vibe. Second, its lovely to hear the Season 19 team, the plot gives them all just enough to do. Davison is fine as the fifth Doctor. I liked the part between the Doctor and Sable when the later called Zaltys a planet of the dead, with the Doctor comeback about having visited several planets with the same title. I also enjoyed the bit with the Doctor talking to Adric at the end about three being the perfect number, with Adric pointing out the TARDIS actual has four passengers, and also the Doctor's speech to Talia about travel broadening the mind and her tart comment about how that turned out for Perrault.

The play expands on Adric's character somewhat, starting with him reading alone, exploring some of his feelings toward his fellow travelers and how he feels the new Doctor doesn't have as much time for him as the old Doctor. There is a good bit on the planet where he tricks a computer into thinking he is somewhen else, when the computer asks him why he sounds different Adric replies that he has a cold... an amusing joke/refence to how different Matthew Waterhouse sounds now compared to his time in the television series . He also gets to put his mathematics skills to the test working out the incoming asteroid about to hit the planet is more than it appears. His TARDIS-piloting skills are used, and he gets to stand up to mercenary Sable.

Sarah Sutton's Nyssa gets to do the usual following-behind-the-Doctor thing that she and her fellow performer have got down to a T, but other than being threatened and using her psychic ability, she doesn't get much compared to the others to do, although I did like her trick she used to get away from Sable.

Tegan is as always great. Janet Fielding gets some great moments, funny lines and emotional bits. I liked it at the beginning when she tricked Adric into piloting the TARDIS. She gets some good bits of horror while she is trapped in the ship and being hunted and gets to bound with an alien fishperson called Lusca. I liked the part when she is has to escape the ship by leaping off it as it comes in to land, a great moment.

As for the supporting acts, they are fine as well, no complaints. Philip Franks as the hulking psychic wolfman Gevaudan, an alien who has sworn allegiance to the planet after they rescued him, is an interesting character, although his powerful psychic abilities aren't really explained. The Doctor mentions that his race don't have very strong powers but throughout the story his are rather impressive, hence why I thought he was the baddy. This was the only twist I didn't guess, although I did guess that his mate was a male so there's that.

Talia and Perrault, Zaltys guardians, are a contrasting pair, him nice and open and pleasing, her suspicious, rude, xenophobic and unpleasant. I can't say I saw the twist betrayal coming (spoiler alert, I thought it was Gevaudan) although in retrospect it is never the most obvious culprit.

Sable, played by Rebeca Root as a vile, self interested space mercenary, makes a good secondary villain, double dealing, scheming and trying to escape the planet when her plan to loot it fails. She does have a surprisingly deep voice however (not that there is anything wrong with that) so when she shoots someone later in the play and they remark about the woman with the gun, I had to double check the CD case to see that she was played by a woman. Actually, the story has some strong female performances all in all.

Clairmonde (Niamh Cusack) is the villain, who has a past with Doctor She has a great voice and gives a great performance, playful and nasty all at once, a great villain. It's a shame we wont get a rematch unless they do a prequel. The part where she interrogates Tegan and taunts her, mocking her over the Tannoy and observing her as Tegan stumbles through the ship is great, as is the part where Tegan confronts her, and Clairmonde, with one prod of her finger, sends her flying in a show of strength.

It won't be any surprise to discover the identity of the baddies. After all, the story starts with Adric reading Dracula, mentions a lost ship of vampires and features a darkened, windowless ship with desiccated husks onboard. Part three's cliffhanger of a ship full of vampires in spacesuits setting out across the desert world is a very arresting image and would have made a great TV moment. The sequence where they hunt Tegan sadly falls apart; it doesn't sound scary enough, a survivor leads Tegan to safety far too easily, they never seem to get close enough to her except at the end and then they are called off, so it is a bit of a letdown. As I mentioned earlier, the psychic powers aren't fully explained, is he just a little stronger than normal? He mentions Nyssa has similar abilities to him, so is she powering him up or is it the planet amplifying its effects? It is a little hard to believe that the traitor/mole stayed hidden with a telepath around (even though he has promised to not use his power to read minds, Gevaudan still does and unless the mole can shield his thoughts, itself a suspicious act, it seems odd he wasn't caught until the end). The ending seems a bit rushed as well, as having backed themselves into a corner, it is resolved far too easily and too last minute with psychic powers almost as if they ran out of time. Also why is a wolflike alien from a planet called Vulpine (it means foxlike)? It would make more sense if he was froma planet called Lupine (wolflike).

I think the ending would have been better if Perrault instead of Nyssa had been used by Gerauvan to end the plot (you can still have him killed off later on), as he was a powerful psyhic. Also, it was hinted by the Doctor that his ally would betray him, and you can easily see how that plot point could have gone (betrayal and vampires gong hand in hand of course).

The author of Zaltys, Matthew J Elliott, also wrote The Maker of Demons and much like that story it's not exactly original: psychic powers, desert planets, stereotypical alien species, planets going into suspended animation to wait out a planetary disaster, moles/traitors, vampires in spaceship (they turn up in a surprising number of Doctor Who stories). But as I have said before, just because something is not original doesn't mean it can be done well, and here it is done well.

Another thing I thought to mention is that the booklet that comes with the CD case isn't as full as it used to be; it's just credits, an advert for DWM, another advert for the next story and an alternative cover, which is a shame as they used to contain photographs of the cast and notes from the director and writer. I can understand why Big Finish would cut down like this to save money, and the CD does contain behind-the-scenes extras anyway, but I do find it a little disapointing. They've also changed the way they set up the blurb on the back of the case; a little niggling cosmetic feature I know, but I prefer how they used to look before.

Killing off most of the supporting act while keeping in tune to the era also comes across as nasty and a bit cheap, but other than that this is a great story, easily worth an eight out of ten, if only the ending had been a bit better.